From ancient byways to modern highways, glimpses of faith are everywhere...

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Dianne Reidy's jeremiad

(Rembrandt's "Jeremiah")
In days of old, those who publicly ranted against the sins of their country didn't make out any better than those who do so today.

Jeremiah, also called "The Weeping Prophet" (for many a good reason) lived during trying times.  His God-given mission was to warn the people of Judah about impending disaster
("destruction by the Babylonian army and captivity") that was
brought about by their own idolatrous practices.

In turn, God had issued this dire warning to Jeremiah:  Attack you they will, overcome you they can't.  In this case, "they" referred to all those who didn't want to hear about their sinful shortcomings.

The attacks upon Jeremiah came fast and furious.  According to Wikipedia, he was "attacked by his own brothers, beaten and put into the stocks by a priest… imprisoned by the king,
threatened with death," and "thrown into a cistern by Judah's officials."

Just the other day, the United States House stenographer, Dianne Reidy, was hauled off the House floor
"following an outburst during the debt ceiling/shutdown vote."  According to the New York Daily News, this "outburst" consisted of a "harsh diatribe about God and Freemasons."  She warned that the U.S. is not one nation under God and never has been because the Constitution was "written by Freemasons."

Reidy's husband, "a former pastor," defended her actions.  Reidy herself gave this explanation:  "For the past
2 and ½ weeks, the Holy Spirit has been waking  me up in the middle of the night and preparing me (through
my reluctance and doubt) to deliver a message in the House Chamber."

There are no reports of Ms. Reidy being thrown into a cistern or threatened with death.  However, she was "briefly questioned by authorities, then was sent to the hospital for a mental health evaluation."  Plus, it is still "unclear if criminal charges will be filed, or if she will keep her job."

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/holy-spirit-made-stenographer-offers-godly-excuse-bizarre-house-rant-article-1.1489524

Copyright October 20, 2013 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved




1 comment:

  1. I don't think it is quite so much Jeremiah. Operhaps it's a little more like the one eho was a "shepherd and pruner of figs" whom God took for a prophet, inthat he was told, go all throughout the land and prophesy, but just not here at the King's palace.

    Or not even that. In the end, they took her for evaluation. Though a person may or fay not be a prophet of God, He can uphold his prophets; therefore to some extent it is better to assume that something else may be thhe cause, first.

    Yet I do agree that she is right, God will not be mocked.

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